The present invention relates to a conveyor for conveying hanging objects.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Generic conveyers which serve for conveying hanging objects and are also referred to as overhead twin rail chain conveyors or power and free conveyers, essentially are formed by a rail profile, in which a conveyor chain is guided in an upper track, and a second track which is arranged below this upper track and in which holding adapters are guided which are carried along by the conveyor chain in conveying direction.
In order to stop an object to be conveyed in such a conveyor, it is not the conveyor chain that is stopped but rather the holding adapter for example by means of a stopping device, and is thereby decoupled from the conveyor chain, wherein the conveyer chain continues to move.
In order to select (sort out) individual objects hanging on the holding adapters, from such a conveyor, all holding adapters with objects hanging thereon have to be transferred into a sorting conveyor in which the holding adapters, and with this the objects to be conveyed, are coupled at defined distances to each other. In the sorting conveyor the objects to be sorted out are then identified and are conveyed out of the sorting conveyor to a packing site or the like. While hanging on the holding adapters, the remaining objects are subsequently conveyed back again into the overhead twin rail chain conveyor which is used as storage circle, rendering sorting out of desired objects very time consuming. In particular, depending on the circumstance, the objects to be sorted out have to be moved through the overhead twin rail chain conveyor which is used as storage circle, in order to reach the site of the conveyor at which the object can be transferred into a sorting conveyor.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved conveyor in which residence time in the conveyor is decreased and with this individual conveyed objects can be sorted significantly faster.